The rod puppet show originated in the Yellow River Basin and spread to the south during the Southern Song Dynasty. It was named because the puppet's head and body were connected by a wooden stick, which looked like a wooden stick. It flowed into Pingnan in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Pingnan's small rod puppet show is a drama genre formed by the integration of multiple arts. In the process of its spread, it also has corresponding supporting art forms such as role-playing, puppet body production, repertoire text, singing music, and puppet stage, which constitute the performance characteristics of the small rod puppet show with a style different from other puppet art forms. Pingnan's small rod puppet retains the original structure of the ancient rod puppet. The "head portrait" was carved in wood and clay in the early days, and was later carved from phoenix wood. Pingnan's early puppets were small, with a height of only 0.3 meters, belonging to the fine puppet type. Therefore, the puppet stage is 18 meters above the ground, 1.5 meters wide, and 0.8 meters deep. This design is inherited from the stage beauty characteristics of the ancient rod puppet. The repertoires of Pingnan stick puppet show can be divided into three categories. The first category is religious ritual dramas and Buddhist and Taoist rituals similar to Pingjiang and Luantan, such as "Mulian Saves His Mother" and other small plays; the second category is adapted from mythological novels, such as "Zhu Bajie Asks for a Marriage" in "Journey to the West"; the third category is the repertoire from Pingnan local drama "Pingjiang Opera", such as "Wusong Fights the Tiger" and more than 30 other plays. Pingnan stick puppet show is basically based on the Pingjiang and Luantan band system in terms of musical instruments and backstage system. The music is a combination of qupai and banqiang. In the early days, the band of a class was 3-5 people, and later it increased to 5-7 people. Traditional musical instruments include drums, cymbals, gongs, cymbals, gongs, jinghu, erhu, fingering, flute, and later added sanxian and violin. During the popularity of Pingnan stick puppet show, the original structure of ancient stick puppets is still retained.